Category Archives: Planning

Yes, I know, another excuse for a cheesy music reference (check out those perms) but we really are in the final stages before we head off on our big trip. We’ve had multiple work leaving celebrations, people have been very kind and said nice things and now we’re without gainful employment and making the last preparations for our travels. How good is the cake that Andy’s colleagues had made for him. We’ve included a picture of our jeep, OTIS, as a point of reference.

We’ve been spending a bit of time taking in Bargara and surrounds before we go, so this post includes some random pictures of our home for the last eight years. We are really looking forward to seeing parts of Australia and the world we’ve not yet visited, but we do feel privileged to have been part of this community. We think we’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere more beautiful. To find out more about this region of Queensland, check out our post ‘This is Australia’. We’re also starting to try and increase our fitness levels. Sedentary jobs aren’t great in that regard so we’re beginning with a conscious effort to walk more, and complete our 10,000 steps every day (well nearly every day). We also thought we’d share with you some of the practicalities of leaving behind a permanent base and beginning a life on the road.

When we started this blog, there was no conscious decision to include as many references to music as we could. However, the more posts we’ve written, the more our love of music comes out, and it’s amazing how often a lyric jumps out as being the most appropriate way to frame a story. So thanks to David Byrne and Talking Heads we have a way of telling you how we came to make the decision to begin this adventure.

And you may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself
In another part of the world
And you may find yourself
Behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?

We have a plan for our big trip which starts in July 2018 and will go on for as long as we can make it last. However, the plan is fairly loose and it gets looser the further out it goes. We want to allow ourselves the opportunity to find new places and stay a while if we like them. It starts with 9-10 months visiting some of the bits of Australia we’ve been too busy working to see. This will be a combination of camping, motels, AirBnBs and housesitting. We’ll also splurge on luxury every now and again. After Australia it’s likely that Japan will be the next stop, and then we’ll travel west across the globe (or as far as we get). We’ve bought a jeep for the Aussie leg, which we’ll sell before we head overseas. We plan to give some detail in a future post on our preparation and packing.